Another Reason Not to Emigrate

You could end up in Europe:

PARIS — A French parliamentary panel recommended on Tuesday moves to curb the wearing of Muslim veils in certain public facilities and suggested that lawmakers should pass a resolution condemning the garments. But it stopped short of pressing for a total ban.

A report from the panel said that lawmakers were unable to unanimously agree to an outright ban “at this stage,” even though many favored one.

The report, however, called for legislation to ban the covering of the face in public services.

Presenting the report, members of the panel suggested that this could include hospitals, public transport, schools, post offices and even banks — areas where identification is important.

Instead of recommending a total ban of the veil, the report from the 32-member panel, which crossed party lines, said the Council of State, a body which provides the executive with legal advice and acts as a court of last resort, should examine whether legislation should be introduced.

Lionnel Luca, a lawmaker from the governing center-right party and a member of the panel, said the report was a “missed opportunity.”

“We’ll study the issue, we’ll have a resolution — that’s all great,” he said after the release of the 280-page document. “But what we really need is a clear text that outlaws the burqa.”

“We need to go further and we need the political will. At the moment I don’t see that,” he said.


[ ... ]


The center-right Danish prime minister, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, said last week that his government was also considering restricting the burqa and niqab. And in November, Swiss voters supported a referendum to ban the building of minarets on mosques.

The leader of Mr. Sarkozy’s rightist grouping in Parliament, Jean-Francois Copé, has already presented a draft bill that would make it illegal, for reasons of security, for anyone to cover their faces in public. Violators would face fines, according to the draft, which is not due to be debated until after regional elections in March.

Oh, boy, once again the Europeans are way ahead of us colonials. When a U.S. Congresscreature wants to do something that's gratuitously stupid, he or she convenes hearings on naughty baseballers juicing themselves with steroids, or introduces a bill forbidding anyone to use the words "national championship" in connection with any college football activity not involving a playoff tournament. And, yes, these things are nauseating. But these Euros ... they combine their aggressive stupidity with a big dose of hatefulness.

No, my fellow Americans, if you still love the idea of liberty, it may indeed be time to run ... but in some other direction, I think.

Off topic, but a note for the we-must-be-in-the-last-days file: did you catch, toward the end of the excerpt, this: " ... illegal, for reasons of security, for anyone to cover their faces in public?" This story didn't come from the Waynedale Advertiser, or the Bluffton Tattler, or even the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette; it was from The New York Times. What, can't the Gray Lady afford to employ competent copy editors any more?